Bluedog goes to Italy

It’s a long way for us to travel from the Bluedog kennel to Italy. There’s many hours to be spent on a plane and a strong possibility there will be exhaustion to greet you at the other end. However, we have found an easier way!

Venture to a delightful authentic slice of Italy transplanted into the glorious Fraser Coast, near Hervey Bay, Queensland. Villa Cavour hosts Mara and Rocco have successfully brought the flavours and sights of Italy with them and are now sharing it with all of us!

The city of Cavour is the home of the Italian slow food movement and back home in Italy as a chef Rocco had a strong following of gourmets who would travel to taste his sensational cooking. Thankfully for us he now shares his talents with his guests in a hands-on cooking experience where you can make your own dinner using fresh local ingredients with the perfect Italian chef to guide you.

We made our own pasta, grissini and amazing sauces. And there was something quite enchanting about eating Moreton Bay bugs over pasta we had made, served on tableware once used in a castle and sipping fine Italian wine handpicked and imported by Rocco and Mara.

The Bed and Breakfast itself is a custom built house over two levels with self contained rooms upstairs and lounge, dining and kitchen downstairs. The kitchen definitely forms the hub of the activities with Rocco.

In our Bed and Breakfast ratings it rates a 9 and one of the pups has already booked a return visit.
Grazie Rocco and Mara. Grazie Mille!!!
For more info visit: http://www.villacavour.com.au/

And another bonus, all good Italians know about good coffee!

The 127th Hughenden show has Augustine Snapping Happily

By Augustine Mathews

As a famous movie once said – if you build it they will come – and they did!! The 127^th Hughenden Show opened yesterday and people were rushing around trying to see how they’d done with their entries in the various categories.

There was a lot of really positive feedback from the judging of the photography section. Sherliee (my Hughenden host) had asked me to make a few comments about some of the winners and the non-winners so that people would know what went wrong. Those comments apparently were viewed as being a really good idea. Indeed I had people coming up to me to get clarification of why I would have chopped out some of the big white cloudy sky, and why putting something off-centre is better compositionally. It was great.

My day was spent racing around taking promo shots for the show. I must admit I had a ball. The people here are so friendly. When I would explain to the equestrian riders what I was doing and would they mind if the shots were potentially used for future advertising the beaming pride in their smiles said it all. A few of the younger riders came looking for me throughout the day to give me an update on their progress as they accumulated more and more ribbons.

During the lunch break for the riders in the main arena the goat races are held. Yep – you read that right – goat races. It seems that this sport actually has a fine tradition and was an event big enough to attract bookies and punters in the past. Now it is staged mostly for the children, and boy, did they enjoy it? It is quite something to see these little children, wearing their silks with pride, hurtling down the race way being towed by a goat whose incentive is a bucket of oats. These goats must love oats because they were flying. The joy on the faces of the children and the amusement for all the spectators makes this an event for the whole crowd and everyone was really getting into it. 3 heats and a final produced a very proud winner and some great photos for me.

Having a camera around the neck sure does open some doors. I was asked to go and photograph the awarding of the prizes for the fleeces (as in wool shorn from the sheep’s back) and after a bit flash testing I had it all sorted and got shots of one family team that scooped the pool this year in the fleece judging. I asked the champion fleece growers (? – haven’t quite got the jargon right yet J) if I could take their photo in front of their fleece. Well it turns out the gentleman in the shot was the town mayor, and after letting me know which of Hughenden’s sights were a must see he offered me a car if I needed one. Imagine that – me in the mayor’s car! Did I mention that the people of Hughenden are generous as well as friendly? 

My country education certainly got a lift today. I had the chance to learn about cows? Cattle? Cows? I should have found out what I was learning about. I want to get the wording right. Either way, I learnt that cow’s hate a crush, but more than a crush, cattle hate having their teeth counted. Apparently knowing whether your beast has no teeth, 2, 4, 6 or 8 teeth is very important. It seems that teeth come in at certain ages and they use a tooth count to class the animals so that “you are comparing apples with apples” (hang on; I’m sure the fruit was in the main pavilion?). It was quite amazing to hear these 600kg+ animals bellowing at the indignity of having someone pry open their lips and count their teeth. Wait til they find out what happens to them after the show. 

Tonight should be an event to behold. The sashing of “Miss Showgirl” at the Basalt Bash Ball. Unfortunately no one mentioned the ball before I left home so I have nothing to wear (says Cinderella). I did consider going to the local boutique and seeing if I couldn’t find something more appropriate than the jeans I have packed but it is show day public holiday here in Hughenden .... and I’m not even sure they even have a boutique? Sherliee does assure me that as the photographer I’ll be forgiven for not being in a ball dress and really, for practicality it’s probably not a bad thing.

Catch you all tomorrow. They do the chicken judging tomorrow which is apparently a photographers dream 

Mayor Brendan McNamara and Champion Fleece

 Goat Races

  Horse Events for all ages

Queensland's Outback Catches City Chick

By Augustine Mathews

It seems that Danielle was worried about sending this town mouse into the country. After her recent trip to Hughenden teaching some classes she was a bit concerned about how this city chick would deal with the country life. To be honest I did wonder that myself. Turns out, there is not as much city in this mouse as there is country. 

I am loving this trip. (I think Danielle breathed a huge sigh of relief when I told her). For anyone that has never been “out west” I couldn’t recommend it highly enough. The people here are amazing.

I spent yesterday in the main pavilion judging the photography competition (more on that further down). When I walked in at 10am I was thinking quietly to myself that this show must not be very big as there were not too many vendors set up and seemingly not much in the way of exhibits. When I re-emerged at 6pm the showgrounds had been transformed. There was a miniature tent city off to one side where the “showies” were prepping sideshow alley, their camp fires casting a glow over the frozen faces of the clowns that will spring to life tomorrow.

Under a tin roof all the baby animals were happily being fussed over by kids eager to touch the piglets and pet the puppies. In a region where livestock is commonplace I was surprised that the kids were still so excited. I had thought that they would be immune to the charms of baby chicks but love for baby animals seems to stay strong even for those that grow up with farm animals as a part of their everyday lives. And my day... well what a surprise that was.

I am up here to judge the show entries for the photography competition and frankly I had visions of a couple of dozen happy snaps that would take me no more than an hour to carefully scrutinise. Oh boy – was I wrong. There were over 400 entries in 60 classes!!! I nearly fell over.

For anyone that thinks that all the talented folk up and head to the “big smoke” let me tell you, there is a heap of talent living right here 350km inland from Townsville.

I had a great time looking over a big slice of country life in the fantastic images that people had submitted for the competition. Everything from cows being herded by kids on dirt bikes to brilliant red outback sunsets, perfect reflections of towering gorges to family pets staring lovingly at their owners. The photos were truly a joy to behold.

I think one of the things that truly awed me were the children’s submissions. The kids are split into age divisions with 5-7, 8-10, 11-14 and 15-17\ year groups. Some of the shots that these children were taking were amazing. One thing that especially struck me was the portrait work that these youngsters were presenting. They seem to have an innate ability to “fill the frame”. Their friends are all there in marvellous close up detail with no extra irrelevant bits taking up photo space. They aren’t afraid to poke a camera in their friends face and say smile. I loved it.

The overall winner was breathtaking – a line of trees fiercely aflame all rendered in fantastic clarity taken by Pauline Schaefer. Hopefully tomorrow when the show starts I’ll be able to meet some of these talented people and express my gratitude for such incredible images. 

Speaking of brilliant red outback sunsets I have to let my fellow photographers into a little secret. I hang my head in shame because I broke the cardinal rule. Last night when I took my walk into town for a cheeky glass of red I didn’t take my camera. Yes, I know. Rule 1 – how can you get the shot if you don’t have your camera? Well, I wasn’t going to take pictures, I was going to get some wine. What could possibly justify carrying my camera into the pub? As I was walking east I noticed a definite pink to the sky and inwardly groaned. I thought “if it’s pink like this in the east, what is happening in the west?” Knowing this would hurt, I turned west and there it was ... the most amazing red sunset I have seen in ages. The sky was lit up with brilliant red clouds that stretched from here to eternity. They do say that outback sunsets are some of the best and this truly was. Kicking myself for not taking the camera? You bet!!!

The grand champion image at the Hughenden Show 2010

 

Every image entered was a 5x7" image.
There were over 400 entries across 60 sections

 

 And who can pass the clowns? 

Bluedog Photography Heads to Injune and Carnarvon Gorge - Day 3

Day 3 started for us at the end of Day 2 as we saw midnight come and go sitting under the stars on a nearby hill - yes we could hear the dingoes. The shooting star count was won by Therese who also discovered a new essential to take on any star trail shoot you do. As you may already know a bottle of fine red is a fundamental; we'll now add to that a requirment to wear red clothing - the stains from Therese spilling more than what went in her mouth are a testament to this.

Jake learnt photographers do long hours and the teen who needs so much sleep has now done a day with less than four hours sleep. It has been worth it as Jake nailed his first star trail and he keeps telling us, ‘it’s totally sick’. He’s on a steep learning curve: he now knows what the Southern Cross looks like, how to wash dishes (we hope his Mum is proud), how to resize images for the blog, and that cattle here are bred for meat not milk.

The countryside around Injune is the prettiest I have ever seen it. The rolling hills carpeted in an endless green of waving long grasses that reach upwards and nearly hide the cattle growing fat in their rich pastures. A heavy band of cloud hid Mount Hutton when we awoke this morning threatening more rain may be on the way. In fact, as we headed out of Injune a few rain drops splattered across the windscreen.

One of our main subjects today for photography was road kill and we can now add a Wedge Tail Eagle and Dingo to our list of road kill images and a wedgy feather now adorns the vent inside the Bluedog Discovery.

A highlight today for Therese was checking out the local ‘talent’ at the Injune Hotel. She found two hopefuls (see below!) but I took the opportunity to decline any offers.

We are now settled back at the homestead With Daggy and Puddy now back from their sojourn to Brisbane and yes we have a wine in our hands and are ready for another adventure tomorrow.

Therese chatting up the talent at the Injune Hotel.
'On the Tune'.
Photo by Jake Campbell.

Jake taking the oppurtunity to get a photo of
a sleeping birdie.

Photo by Danielle Lancaster.

Doggie having a nanna nap - we have to stop Jake writing captions.
Photo by Jake Campbell.

Jakes first star trail.

Photo by Jake Campbell.